Wednesday, August 27, 2008

the even longer part.We left with Ann and Megan discussing what got them into blogging.Megan admits she herself was motivated by an anti-statist anger inspired by reading the archives of Reason, and ascribes the same initial motivation to all bloggers. What makes Megan better than me is that she grew out of dwelling in anger and is now a mature, positive blogger. Girls just mature faster, especially the ones who talk about being more mature. Ann gently challenges Megan by mentioning her own motivating desire to inflict her narcissism on the rest of the world, and says she views blogging as "like an art project". Ann gave up on being an artist when she discovered mirrors, but mirrors can't also offer compliments like a good blog sycophant can.From here we segue into the second great section of the 15 minutes of troll time. It begins at 52:50, with Ann asking Megan, "why is it me and you". Megan answers that she's heard two theories, though she eventually offers four. The first is that she's a "woman who blogs about male topics in a female way", which is not in and of itself either bullshit or an embrace of cultural definitions of gender to a degree that might itself be considered misogynist. Megan doesn't write about football by asking the players if they feel good about their teammates and arguing they should use hugs to end a play instead of tackling, but she thinks that her method of argument by personal anecdote is humanizing and distinctly feminine, instead of inappropriate for a topic that's supposed to be based on empirical data and completely without relevance to her gender. Mean guys want economics to be about the math, as opposed to Megan's feelings.Ann responds that this "method" is what fires people up, which means they should do it more. A response equals great success. This is in no way what actual trolls think, and in no way resembles their methods. Ann is not a concern troll pretending to herself she's a performance artist troll, she's.... a vortex spinner. Mhm.The second great theory Megan has heard, in the sense of someone repeated what she said back to her, as to why everyone outside the DC blogging clique thinks she's an idiot, is that "women are only allowed to be smarter in certain ways", and they're "not supposed to be smarter just on sheer analytic firepower". This is another moment we'll revisit in the semi-serious post still to come, so for now just enjoy the belly laugh. Megan, you lack analytic firepower, because you are poorly informed and a sloppy, self-indulgent thinker. That you'd claim your critics are unwilling to recognize that there are women who are smarter than we are shows that you yourself aren't very bright. Also, your entire work history shows the same thing, from 2x4s to Jail the Jena Six to blacks are lazy to whatever you'll say tomorrow. Next up is the theory that Megan and Ann are "squishier" than a Michelle Malkin, and thus get all the criticism she doesn't. There's no point in criticizing Malkin, she's not listening, so the left doesn't bother, whereas Megan and Ann pretend it's just a coincidence they end up in basic agreement with the Republican talking points of the day 95% of the time and say they're in the mushy middle, meaning they listen to both sides. Yes, I realize this claim is evidence that Megan and Ann have both had a traumatic break with reality, but they really did claim this. And Megan goes on to explain that her mushy middle position makes her "dangerous", because unlike Malkin she might convince someone on the fence to follow her. It's at 56:10, folks, she actually believes this. Some folk might find it unseemly to express such a high self opinion repeatedly, but Megan's a woman blogger, dammit. Her own experience of herself is much more true than reality, and only misogynist liberals would challenge her delusions of grandeur.Megan, surprisingly, allows there's a final, fourth theory as to why she gets such a negative response; she's a horrible person and terrible blogger. Apparently proponents of this theory also think she should be put in a camp, which is to say Megan has invented the passive aggressive Godwin. Great job!Ann finally chimes in with her own theory that her critics think women are supposed to be liberal and she should get in her place, as opposed to disagreeing with her and finding her to be batshit crazy in her bizarre psycho-sexual fantasies involving the Clintons.Megan and Ann conclude their hour of power by talking about what Hillary's campaign says about them, which is doubly funny in that they insult Hillary as much as possible while complimenting themselves for her achievements.

Diavlogs are just a shitty format for shitty talent. I don't think I'll try this again.

Oh, also,Dear DC blogging clique,Take some fucking public speaking classes.You all suck, and I'm not talking about the cold, Megan.

About us

McMegan is awful, just awful, but at least she's no longer employed by The Atlantic. Still, no one can read her every day and live, so we've all but given up trying. Let's just be glad her upwards failure has leveled off.Posts here will likely remain few and far between, as will my tweets. M. is still at his place and twitter and now also Whiskey Fire, and Clem maintains well deserved alumnus privileges.